Eco-fascism and political ecologies of the far-right in Germany

This project explores the relationship between nature and the far-right through a study of the eco-fascist volkisch settlements in Germany. Eco-fascism combines an intense care for ecological issues with narratives of racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Eco-fascism is seeing a global resurgence, as ecological breakdown(s) and proliferating far-right movements intersect. Recent terrorist attacks in Christchurch and El Paso, justified by eco-fascist manifestos, make understanding this political response to ecological and societal uncertainty increasingly urgent. To this end, this research aims to investigate how nature is mobilised as a basis for eco-fascist politics, and how this can be prevented.
The recent growth of volkisch (ethno-nationalist) settlements in Germany offers a case study of eco-fascism in practice. Increasingly common in north-east and central Germany, these settlements constitute a rare opportunity to explore how eco-fascism is manifested in place, rather than simply in discourses or representations. Previous journalism has documented interesting features of these settlements: their pagan and animist worship practices, patriarchal social structures, organic diets, and emulation of 1920s volkisch -environmentalist groups. A geographical approach can move beyond this limited (though valuable) indexing of the settlements' characteristics to explain how certain spaces and landscapes become susceptible to volkisch, eco-fascist interpretations. The literatures selected here are well placed to explain how this ideology of race, society and nature, and accompanying calls to retreat to the land in uncertain times, are articulated through space.
To address these issues, I enrol several bodies of geographical literature. The first, 'Political ecologies of the far-right', is concerned with how far-right movements imagine, organise around, and act upon nature. This will inform my focus on the different imaginations of nature by the German far-right in the past and present. The second, 'Post-foundational political theory', maintains that there is no ultimate basis for social life (e.g. a social contract or divine authority), and explores the ways in which 'contingent foundations' for society are continuously re-made. I use this literature to explore how ideas of nature are invoked to serve as foundations for the social structures of the volkisch settlements. My third body of literature, 'More-than-human geographies', explores the role of non-human actors (plants, animals, landscapes) in co-producing human activity. Given the prominence of ideas of nature in the volkisch universe (from animist and pagan spirituality to a reverence for the German landscape as a source of ethnic energies), more-than-human theory will be a useful tool for unpacking the influence of nature in animating, shaping, and grounding volkisch politics.

The project will therefore implement several research methods, the first of which is archival analysis. Using collections on historical environmental movements at the Bundesarchiv Berlin, I will analyse scholarship and propaganda produced by volkisch-environmentalist groups such as the Wanderwogel in Germany. This will assist in historicising the role of nature as a foundation for volkisch politics. In the process, I will also collect contemporary materials published by volkisch groups, ranging from far-right environmental magazines such as Umwelt&Aktiv, to online forums such as volkisch Paganism. My discourse analysis of these materials will focus on how imaginaries of nature attract people to certain political positions, and inspire real-world action. Finally, I will conduct walking interviews with people associated with the volkisch settlements (but strictly avoiding anyone actively involved in the communities), focusing on how they relate to different landscapes, and the strategies they use to fuse nature and politics together.